LOCATION : 154, St. Thomas' Road, (at the Junction with Gillespie Road).
BY UNDERGROUND: Arsenal, Piccadilly Line. Turn left at exit, Club is approximately 200 yards on left.
BEERS: On sale are Abbotts Ale, Newcastle Brown, Kronenbourg, Carling Premier and Draught Guinness. All priced between £1.55 and £1.65 per pint.
MEMBERSHIP: Current rates are £18 a year. Guests can be signed in by a member for just £1 per head.
HISTORY: The Supporters' Club was founded at the beginning of the 1949-50
season, and it is therefore proudly celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Facilities available to members include travel to away games, a programme
service, and a shop stocking all current Arsenal merchandise. The Club also
produces its own fanzine, GUNFLASH, which having been first published in
1949 makes it Arsenal's longest running monthly magazine.
Any Arsenal fan will recognise the Supporters Club building at the corner of
St Thomasıs Road - the brightly painted bar that is always heaving with
fans. As it is always packed, many assume that it is no longer possible to
join. In fact they will always welcome new members as Baso, the easily
recognisable editor of Gunflash confirms:
'Talk to almost anybody within the Supporters' Club, and they will say that
they regard it as ' their family '. But it is a family that welcomes
outsiders. The Club's motto is "To Help, Not Hinder" and supporters of
visiting teams are frequently to be found there on match days. This aspect
of the Club was highlighted earlier this season when a Gooner from the North
East called into the Club for a pre-match pint, and 'bumped into' a
Leicester City fan. It turned out that they had served together on the same
ship some thirty years ago, and had not seen each other since.
The Club can boast many characters over the years, and all have stories to
tell. One of the Club's favourites was when the late Joe Vickerstaff from
Ferryhill got married way back in 1936. His wife to be had never been to
London, so for their honeymoon, Joe took her to see the lights. But Joe had
ulterior motives - as soon as they arrived, he locked his bride in the hotel
room and set off to watch Arsenal's reserves play West Ham.'
On the subject of weddings, it is a well documented fact that Baso himself
always ensures he has his priorities right - he missed his own sister's to
watch Arsenal. Apparently when his mother phoned to inform him that the date
of the wedding was to be April 18th, he replied that Arsenal were playing at
Bramall Lane that day. When his mother sternly said " You won't be able to
go then, will you ?", Bas replied "No, but I should be able to get back in
time for the reception!"